Mike Buesing, who has owned and operated Mike's Eastside Auto Clinic at 510 White Bear Avenue in St. Paul since 1979 changes the oil on a customer's car, on Wednesday, July 2, 2014. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Mike Buesing will proudly tell you he’s kept his 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass running all these years with no help from anyone else.

And, except for a year and a half in the 1980s when he hired a part-time employee, the same can be said of his auto repair business.

Buesing has been the owner and sole employee of Mike’s Eastside Auto Clinic on White Bear Avenue for nearly 35 years.

Although he’s always been mechanically inclined, that’s not enough when you’re operating a business on your own.

“There’s a lot more to it than that,” Buesing said. “It’s one thing to fix cars and be sort of good at it, but you’ve got to be able to do everything and be sort of good at it.”

Over the years, he’s had to learn bookkeeping, customer service and marketing.

But now that he’s approaching retirement age, he’s faced with another problem familiar to sole proprietors — he’s got no one to pass the business on to.

“I would hate to just walk away,” Buesing, 62, said. “I’ve got so many good customers.”

And some, like Tom and Joan Peterson, have been with him since he first bought the shop in 1979.

Buesing did the Petersons’ first oil change on their Plymouth Volare.

“They weren’t very good cars,” Tom Peterson said. “I was in there quite often with a lot with different problems. … But he did his best. Kept it running.”

Buesing learned car repair during a six-year stint in the Air National Guard, working in the motor pool. After he was discharged in 1976, he worked full-time for Metropolitan Waste Control before buying the garage, then called Quality Tire.

At the time, the business was strictly tires and undercoating, and sales were on a downhill slide.

But Buesing had already built a reputation as a mechanic around the neighborhood — changing oil and the like for a few extra bucks. So, when he opened his doors on Sept. 1, 1979, it didn’t take long for him to develop a following.

Back then, marketing was easy.

“I hand-delivered fliers to everyone in the neighborhood, telling them I was going to open there,” Buesing said. “A lot of people came in.”

He also advertised in the bulletin of the St. Pascal Baylon Catholic Church across the street from the shop.

Soon, he was getting three or four jobs each day. And not much has changed in the intervening years.

Cars haven’t changed much in that time either, he said, except for computers.

“Cars run the same as they used to,” he said. “They still need gas, they still need air, they still need compression, but the computer controls a lot of that now.”

Just about the only thing that has changed since he opened is what he charges for labor. The $19-per-hour base rate he started with in 1979 has gradually climbed to $110 — although he’s quick to point out that it’s really more of a guideline.

But higher prices haven’t driven off any of his customers, Buesing says, adding that he’s still gaining one or two new regulars each week. The garage’s two repair bays are usually full.

Buesing speculates that many find his one-man show — a rarity these days — refreshing.

“With a lot of places, what happens is you have to talk to the service manager, who talks to the mechanic,” he said. “You come in here, you talk to me.”

The Petersons, who are still coming in four decades later, appreciate that.

“I don’t really want to go to the big dealers,” Tom Peterson said. “You just never know with them.”

But being small does come with a few drawbacks. Buesing has to turn away jobs that would take him more than a few hours to complete.

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” Buesing said. “I did that in the early days. You tend to get burned out a little bit.”

Luckily, Buesing has relationships with a handful of other area auto repair shops. He refers to them customers who need complicated work done — valve jobs, for example — and they send business his way when they’re overbooked.

There’s also no one to cover for him when he goes on vacation. Buesing is an avid big-game hunter, and his adventures over the years — he’s hunted on six continents — are recalled in photos on the shop’s waiting room walls. Customers are greeted by images of Buesing decked out in safari gear and crouched beside a hippopotamus, a lion and a couple of elephants — all of which he shot.

His weeks-long trips keep the garage closed for long stretches. But Buesing says most people are happy to wait until he gets back to have their car worked on, unless it’s an emergency.

Keeping his own books also has been a challenge. Buesing credits the accountant he’s been with since he opened for keeping him out of “IRS jail.”

“The early years are tough,” Buesing said. “You’re still figuring stuff out.”

But the early years are far behind him.

While he’s looking forward to having more time for hunting and for his family, he knows he’ll have to give up the business one day and hopes someone will buy it.

“I’ve never gotten sick of it,” Buesing said. “I can’t remember a day where I’ve come in here and said, ‘I can’t stand this anymore.’ “

Nick Woltman can be reached at 651-228-5189. Follow him on Twitter at @nickwoltman.

Nick Woltman reports on breaking news and blogs about local history. Before joining the staff of the Pioneer Press in 2013, he worked for the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota. He lives with his wife and two cats in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul.

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